Chapter 1361: Yao Pool
Translator: Larbre Studio Editor: Larbre Studio
To the imperial government, this battle was horrible.
A wanted person had dared trespa.s.s in the empire city to commit slaughtering, overlooking the royal laws and the imperial government. This was reckless.
If the imperial government couldn’t catch Zhang Ruochen, everyone would be laughing at it.
The guarding formation of Central Empire City was turned on, and then, light engraving chains surged to the sky, connecting the heaven and earth, locking down the entire city to stop Zhang Ruochen from running away.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t plan to escape from the empire city. After all, everyone thought that he would be running away, so it’d be dangerous for him to do that.
Instead, it’d be better for him to stay in the empire city.
Obviously, he could go back to the heir mansion no more, so he needed to find somewhere else.
Zhang Ruochen left the seventh city region, walking on the street covered by snow. He had calmed himself down already. Even though Tianming Corpse Emperor managed to get away, the Ancient Ghost Cultivation Race and Ancient Necromancy Race still paid a huge price.
After that fight, the other powers would need to think twice if they wanted to go after him.
A seven-year-old kid yelled on the street, “Look, daddy! There’s a moon in the sky.”
“How come we can still see a moon in this kind of weather? Wait, it is indeed a moon, and it’s moving.” The middle-aged man standing beside the kid was a bit surprised.
Zhang Ruochen also raised his head, and he saw the gleaming moon hanging in the dark sky. The light from the ‘moon’ only shone upon a specific city region, which was the seventh city region.
Suddenly, the moon started to move toward another city region.
Only those who had reached the state of saint could see that it wasn’t a moon. Instead, it was a giant mirror.
“Is that the Revealing Mirror, the supreme saint weapon of the Confucius Way?”
Zhang Ruochen was a bit scared.
It was said that the Revealing Mirror was able to detect all the camouflage in the world. Zhang Ruochen wasn’t proficient in Traceless 36 Changes yet, so he would definitely be detected once he was reflected upon the mirror.
“Those old guys from the Way of Confucius are using the supreme saint weapon to capture me and Ling Feiyu. How marvelous.”
The Revealing Mirror was quick at capturing, and it only took it a breath to fully inspect a city region.
There were armies on the ground cooperating with them too.
After they finished inspecting one city region and making sure Zhang Ruochen wasn’t hiding inside, they immediately turned on the guarding formation, blocking the entire city region.
It would only take them a short while to find Zhang Ruochen if they kept searching like this.
“The one who’s using the Revealing Mirror has got to have incredible mind power to use the mirror so efficiently. What should I do now?”
Zhang Ruochen frowned, as he knew that n.o.body could save him if he was captured.
Where could he hide?
Suddenly, Zhang Ruochen came up with an idea. He mumbled, “Yao Pool.”
An ancient but deep memory emerged in Zhang Ruochen’s mind at this moment.
Eight hundred years ago, Yao Pool was a manor that belonged to Qingchi Central Empire, and it was also a garden that Emperor Qing gave to Princess Chi Yao. That was where Zhang Ruochen met Chi Yao for the first time.
Every time Emperor Qing and Emperor Ming met, it was there.
That being said, Yao Pool wasn’t just a manor. Instead, it was a very special place where there was a formation made by Emperor Qing and Emperor Ming, which could block all inspection from the outside.
The two emperors were confidants and the heads of two central empires. Every time they met up, they would talk about everything for ages, and that was when Zhang Ruochen had a lot of chances to meet up with Chi Yao. There were many golden memories in Yao Pool.
Zhang Ruochen didn’t want to go there at all if he had any other choice. The more beautiful the memories were, the most pain he would suffer thinking about them.
However, due to the threat of the Revealing Mirror, Zhang Ruochen went to that ancient manor, standing on the snow and looking at the manor’s door.
It used to be a suburb of the empire city, but now, it was in the urban area.
The manor was still the same, and even the plaque on the door hadn’t changed at all.
However, Yao Pool was completely dead now, and there were no guards or servants. There were two seals on the door, ‘Forbidden’ and ‘Executed with no exceptions.’
It was a place that was off-limits.
The monks who walked past that place were all intimidated by the manor. They didn’t even dare get close.
The two seals seemed to contain the secrets that the owner never wanted to reveal. Anyone who dared trespa.s.s in that place would be executed.
Zhang Ruochen walked toward the door, stayed still for a while and touched the seals with his hand.
Bang!
A tumbling force gushed out of the seals, knocking Zhang Ruochen away. He fell to the ground, splas.h.i.+ng the snow.
Zhang Ruochen stood up and looked at his b.l.o.o.d.y arm, and then, he looked to those two rugged seals and whispered to himself, “Is that a warning?”
Zhang Ruochen took a deep breath. Holy Qi flowed in his body, and his wound gradually started to heal.
Zhang Ruochen put his arms behind his back and walked toward the left of the manor. He walked to the back door of the manor.
There weren’t seals on the back door, but there was a formation boundary set up by two emperors.
This wasn’t the first time Zhang Ruochen had come to Yao Pool, so he knew pretty well how to crack the formation boundary. He put his finger on the red door, drawing patterns on it.
Jzz!
The formation boundary disappeared, and then, Zhang Ruochen walked in.
There were weeds everywhere in the manor, and thick snow covered them. There wasn’t a single living being in the manor.
It was lifeless and deserted.
Memories flooded back again, and Zhang Ruochen started to see things differently. There were attics, lakes, cranes and mist surrounding the bridges. Every step he took, he could see a different scene.
He felt like he was able to hear the laughing from the young boys and girls, who were practicing their sword techniques under the trees. Some of them were sitting beside the lake or sitting on the roofs looking at the stars and moon.
Everywhere was a memory to him.
“Brother Chen, you can definitely become a supreme saint and the next emperor of Sacred Central Empire in the future. As for me, I don’t have that much potential, so I might not be able to reach that level in my lifetime. I can’t take over the throne of Chiqing Central Empire.”
“Who told you only the talented ones can become supreme saints? Many supreme saints and G.o.ds in history only had mediocre potential, but they had very strong willpower.”
“Why are you so stiff? Why can’t you just tell me I don’t need to practice that hard and that I just need to be the empress of the next Emperor Ming?”
“Oh… Wait, Yaoyao, don’t leave. I’ll say that to you right now.”
“I don’t want to hear it anymore.”
…
The young guy and the young girl walked away, leaving a stone path covered with moss in front of him, with withered leaves and branches.
Zhang Ruochen shook his head mildly and smiled with bitterness.
And then, Zhang Ruochen walked into a deserted attic that was filled with cobwebs. At the center of the cobwebs was a chessboard.
There were still chess pieces on the board, black and white.
Zhang Ruochen recalled that Emperor Ming took him to Yao Pool three times, and every time he played chess with Emperor Qing, it would last for three days.
These rounds of the game went on three times, and it was nine days. n.o.body won.
Zhang Ruochen could still see Emperor Ming and Emperor Qing sitting there. Emperor Ming was holding the white chess pieces while Emperor Qing was holding the black ones. They both looked solemn, and every move they made seemed like a huge decision.
Zhang Ruochen wiped away the cobwebs, walked toward the chessboard and looked at it.
And then, Zhang Ruochen’s pupils gleamed, and he said, “Wait, this is not in the middle of the game. The whites lost. Father has lost. How is it possible?”
Zhang Ruochen could remember clearly that n.o.body had won the last time they played chess against each other.
And besides, Emperor Qing wouldn’t play the same game with someone else.
There was only one possibility…that the last time they played chess was when Zhang Ruochen wasn’t here, and they had finished, reaching the end game.
“How weird the way they played chess was…”
Even zhang Ruochen could tell that the way the two emperors played chess was strange, but he couldn’t tell how.
“Was father attacked by Emperor Qing the last time he played chess with him? Is that why he has been missing?”
Zhang Ruochen clenched his fist and got furious. He felt that the game finished on the chessboard had something to do with his father going missing.
“It just looks so strange. There has to be some secret behind it. Is that a trace left by father?”
However, there were saintly way rules on the chessboard, and each chess piece contained the power of a supreme saint. They were heavier than mountains.
Zhang Ruochen couldn’t pick up the chessboard. Not even a chess piece.
In the end, Zhang Ruochen could only give up and memorize the game. He planned to find someone great at playing chess to solve the mystery that had been left behind.
The manor was so quiet that even Zhang Ruochen was scared.
“Perhaps I shouldn’t have come here.”
Zhang Ruochen was standing beside the chessboard, where Emperor Ming used to sit. He felt lonely and tired, so he penetrated the Universe World with his mind power.
He really wanted to find someone to talk to, and the first one that came into his mind was Huang Yanchen.